Rating: 
Summary: For the Discerning Reader of Literature
Review: After reading the review titled "Blech" I couldn't resist. The author of Blech is probably a fan of Steve Segal action movies and Steven King novels. Piercy is clearly out of his league. Gone To Soldiers as are most of Piercy's novels is well researched, artfully crafted, and immensely readable. She is our Tolstoi. Gone to Soldiers is astonishing in its breadth, depth, and insightful character studies. I am particulary fond of a protagonist's transition from shallow teenager to resistance member. Circumstances do drive behavior if the character is there. Read this book. It will enrich your life.
Rating:
Summary: For the Discerning Reader of Literature
Review: After reading the review titled "Blech" I couldn't resist. The author of Blech is probably a fan of Steve Segal action movies and Steven King novels. Piercy is clearly out of his league. Gone To Soldiers as are most of Piercy's novels is well researched, artfully crafted, and immensely readable. She is our Tolstoi. Gone to Soldiers is astonishing in its breadth, depth, and insightful character studies. I am particulary fond of a protagonist's transition from shallow teenager to resistance member. Circumstances do drive behavior if the character is there. Read this book. It will enrich your life.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Read Ever
Review: But I don't think Marge Piercy set out to be Tolstoy. Apparently the book has historical inaccuracies, and I wouldn't characterize it as classic literature, but I don't think that's the point. It's still one of the best books I've ever read (and re-read several times). The characters are unforgettable and involve you deeply in the stories, which are deftly woven and interwoven. The details may be inaccurate but I haven't experienced anything else (in any medium or genre) that so forcefully brought home what it must have been like to live in fear of the Nazis, to have to choose between collaboration and resistance, and face death on a daily basis. The transformation of one of the central characters from a naive, silly, ignorant teenager to a tough resistance heroine is for me the most brilliantly done and compelling storyline. I'm not a huge Marge Piercy fan, as all her books I've read (4) have serious flaws, but this is undoubtedly her greatest achievement. I do strongly recommend this to just about any reader.
Rating:
Summary: Gone to Soldiers
Review: Engrossing! This is a story of 8 individual's existence and experience during World War II, and through each character the reader feels the pain and anguish and upheaval of war as it penetrates each of their lives and also the people and land around them. Piercy pulls you into the characters lives so deeply that you find yourself thinking about them during your day. Piercy has done years of research to make this novel as real as fiction can get! Read it and then pass it on to your friends!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: Gone to Soldiers is one of the more brilliant books I have ever read. The characters very complex and multidimensional and I connected with each of them. This book really made me realize a lot about the emotional turmoil connected with World War II. I have read many Holocaust books, but this touched me even deeper than those did. This book is so different than any book I have read for many many reasons. Many authors have tried intertwining stories, but none have accomplished it as well as Marge Piercy has in this book. Each character is distinct and amazing, yet they all fit perfectly in the grand scheme of this book. I have also never read a book in which characters feel what they feel in this book. Murray and Bernice were so unique and felt such unique things, I was blown away. By the way, this book isn't just for adults...I am 15 and I love it. It is rather hair raising, so I wouldn't recommend it for most children, but all adults should read this book. Especially you and your family and friends.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: Gone to Soldiers is one of the more brilliant books I have ever read. The characters very complex and multidimensional and I connected with each of them. This book really made me realize a lot about the emotional turmoil connected with World War II. I have read many Holocaust books, but this touched me even deeper than those did. This book is so different than any book I have read for many many reasons. Many authors have tried intertwining stories, but none have accomplished it as well as Marge Piercy has in this book. Each character is distinct and amazing, yet they all fit perfectly in the grand scheme of this book. I have also never read a book in which characters feel what they feel in this book. Murray and Bernice were so unique and felt such unique things, I was blown away. By the way, this book isn't just for adults...I am 15 and I love it. It is rather hair raising, so I wouldn't recommend it for most children, but all adults should read this book. Especially you and your family and friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Blech
Review: I hated this book, it was much more boring than it could've been, plus the book tries to focus on both men and women but Piercy tries to make the women come off as having the harder time, and make the men fighting in the war look like panzies! I know Piercy is a feminist but come on. Plus 2 of the 4 men die off completey. Overall i'd say that this story was a flop and was very unentertaining. What a waste of a good 16 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Rich characters and a great history lesson
Review: I loved this book, and I generally dislike historical fiction. The complexity of the characters and their interconnected lives during WWII was engrossing. This book was clearly meticulously researched and painstakingly written, producing truly lifelike characters and a clear picture of the many ways the war and Holocaust impacted people. By the way, my friend's 15 year old daughter read this as part of her school's summer reading list at the same time as I read it. She adored it too.
Rating:
Summary: Read it and own it so that you can read it again and again!!
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was 13(11 years ago) and since then I have read it at least twice a year. The cover has long since fallen apart and the book has divided itself into four parts, but i will never get enough of it. The story (stories) become part of you, and you will think of the characters constantly. Every time I read it I smile, cry and feel like going back into time... I'm not one for hyperbole, so believe me when I say that this book is fantastic, one of the greatest novels ever written in this century. If I had been living in the States and not in France I would have done my Masters thesis on it.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: Marge Piercy is my favorite living poet, but her novels generally have not impressed me. Not so with "Gone to Soldiers." The characters that she creates in this story of the home fronts of World War II seem so real. A French resistance fighter, a spy, a code breaker, a factory worker, an aviator, a Jewish-American soldier... All have such interesting lives. The story--or should I say, stories?--are told from the perspectives of these various characters in a center-of-consciousness style. Some of my favorite parts were when paths crossed, and the different characters shared their opinions of each other. Not great literature but a wonderful novel none the less.
| 
